Thursday, January 12, 2017

Not IF but WHEN

The day after the 2016 election I predicted that Donald Trump would not make it through four years of office. Now I believe it is a 99% chance he will not last the full term.

Richard Nixon was impeached by the House for lying. He resigned before he could be convicted by the Senate. Bill Clinton was impeached by the House for lying. But he survived the full conviction vote in the Senate.

It is clear that Donald Trump thinks nothing of lying. He may be a successful businessman, he may have family that love him, he may have many loyal and competent employees in his many businesses. And no doubt he will have many supporters in Congress, among his soon-to-be Cabinet members and on his White House staff.

But it is clear he has no concept of the truth and little idea or care of how his decisions affect others. This is the textbook definition of psychopathy.

Further, what is becoming more and more known about his personal life and his business dealings will not be accepted by the American people and ultimately Congress.

Whether Donald Trump chooses to resign before impeachment or after impeachment, or whether he will choose to go through the impeachment trial in the Senate is anyone's guess. This we do know, however: that no matter how he exits he will declare it a victory.

Musicians

Quotes

"The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities." — Adam Smith (1723-1790)

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." — Thomas Jefferson

"A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay." — Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888)

"... to waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed." — Theodore Rosevelt

"Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite
world is either a madman or an economist." — Kenneth Boulding
(1910-1993)

Tom Maertens served as National Security Council director for nonproliferation and homeland defense under Presidents Bill Clinton and
George W. Bush, and as deputy coordinator for counterterrorism in the State Department during and after 9/11. Before retiring from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2002, he had served in Ethiopia, Colombia, the USSR, Panama, Austria, and Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Leigh Pomeroy has written on subjects ranging from politics to health care to film to wine. He has assisted on two books, Dr. D's Handbook for Men Over 40 by Dr. Peter Dorsen and Not What the Doctor Ordered by Jeffrey C. Bauer. In 2004, he was the DFL (Democratic Party) Candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District. He formerly taught writing and film at Minnesota State University, Mankato.